A Texas man has been arrested after police caught him using a device that flips and hides his license plate to avoid paying tolls, police said.
This means a driver can use two license plates and hide one of them within seconds.
Deputies said that after further investigation, they found that Talbot was prohibited to operate a vehicle on the toll road due to his failure to pay tolls. He had already owed $5,473.07.
Talbot was booked into Harris County Jail charged with possession of a license plate flipper. His bond was set at $100,000.
Moreover, it is also a criminal offense to manufacture, sell, offer to sell, or distribute a license plate flipper in the state.
In a similar case in 2017, a Florida man, Joshua Concepcion-West, 27, was arrested for installing a device that shielded his license plate when going through a toll.
The device Concepcion-West installed was not a license plate flipper but rather a type of “curtain” that would cover the plate using the push of a button.
“Because the tag was obscured, we don’t know yet how many times this vehicle has run the toll, so we don’t know how much money he’s stolen from the state,” Montes said.
The 27-year-old faced a felony for failing to pay a $1.25 toll, according to the news broadcaster.